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These are the members and guests who participated in the Bastille Day Holiday Road Trip.

Gary Barnes, Paul Beyer, Mark Milbourn, VanBuren Clark, Bob Schmerbeck, Bill Salomon, Jim Ray, Glenda Beyer, Richard Becker, Martha Mahaffey, Bonnie Becker (hidden), Pat & Liz Murray (guests), Annie Pack, Bob Alger, Shirley Schmerbeck (hidden), Cheryl Clark, Vivian Ray, Judy Salomon, Sam Pack, Catherine Milbourn, Elaine Carroll, Carol Klein, Vivian Barnes, John Wade, Diane Mathews, Joel Klein, Janace Wade, Randy Mathews, Wilmer Carroll, Mike Davis (missing), Larry & Becky Cohen (missing); Vincent Parziale (missing); Dawn Ouanesavanh (missing)

Read on, you will find some interesting stories about most of them you see in the photo above.

The Hoffman Haus, a Texas Hill Country Bed and Breakfast

(Click on any below thumbprint picture to expand for better viewingl)


The Basse House Two separate guests rooms	The Great Hall	The Library	Crocket Guest Room	The Wine Area	The Dining Area	The Conservatory	Texas Star Guest Room

There were a total of 34 Bailliage members and invited guests that participated in the celebration of Bastille Day in Fredericksburg. The trip was fast-paced from morning to night. We had a lot of good food to eat, a lot of good wine to drink, and a lot of good tales to talk about once we got back home. Our choice of lodging in this old, historic town was the Hoffman Haus, a bed and breakfast complex located on two and half acres and just a short walk from downtown Fredericksburg. The big house has a total of four guests rooms. There are nine additional guest rooms that are spread out over the grounds and are either a cabin or duplex type building. The above pictures show three guests rooms, and five common areas within the big house.

The gang started arriving at the Hoffman Haus around 3 p.m. on Friday by truck, auto, motorcycle, and bus (yes, Gary and Vivian Barnes arrived by bus). John Wade came by motorcycle; however, he came alone. Janice arrived a couple of hours later driving the family 4-wheeler. While waiting on the rest of the group to arrive, some of us gathered around to admire John's motorcycle. John's bike falls into the "4-B" Category -- a Big, Black Beautiful Bike -- a Harley Davidson. We'll see his wind and sun burned face in a picture that will be showing up momentarily. On the following day some of us visited Gary an Vivian's bus and had a first class tour of this 64,000 pounds of luxury from stem to stern. We thought we had someone arriving by boat when Vanburen and Cheryl showed up, but found out that they were driving a 1974 Classic Volkswagen that only looked like a boat upside down, ha. A picture of that is also coming up later.

After unpacking, oh, around 3:01, the few of us that were there (our Bailli, in particular) thought it was about time to open a small bottle of wine (click on pic #2) We were only a small group at this hour of the day, so just a small bottle of California Sangiovese should fit the bill. We figured that we could finish this little thing off before the main body of troops arrived. As the others did arrive, our small table got a little crowded, then a little more crowded. It wasn't long before a much larger table was needed and additional bottles of wine to go with it. I believe Bill opened up an additional nine bottles plus the tiny one that we started with. Pic's #2, #3, #4. and #5 illustrate how fast our group was growing in numbers..

Some of the girls Judy, Janace, and Vivian, took a break from the normal chit chat around the table and entertained themselves by playing with Sam. Sam is the house mascot, a big Labrador of about 100 pounds. Sam is so lazy, about all he was able to muster up was a tail wagging while the girls were petting him and feeding him dog snacks. Sam would not even raise his head off the floor to eat the treats. He ate them while laying on his side and licked the crumbs from the floor out of the side of his mouth.

Eventually, all that good wine made us hungry. The hotel laid out a good spread for us, and as you can see, everyone dived right in. Cheryl, Liz, and Martha were a little more disciplined than the rest of us when it came to sampling the snacks. They did it by the numbers, "1, 2, 3, eat" while the others watched to learn how to do it (pic #7).

Mike Davis showed up with no date, but it wasn't long before he saw this honey (stranger) walk through the front door and before you could say "three," he grabbed her and was ready to do some socializing. Look at that big smile on his face.

At 7 p.m. happy three-hour came to a close. It was time to put on our boots and head for the Hilltop Cafe for some serious eating and merrymaking. Bob Schmerbeck had hired a local taxi cab company to cater to our needs for the evening, but forgot to tell us that our drivers were all wanta-be NASCAR drivers. When the speedometer edged passed the 90 mph marker, I saw a lot of prayer beads being pulled out.

The Hilltop Cafe is about ten miles outside of town on highway 87 and is owned and operated by Johnny Nicholas, a legend in his own time in the country western world, and is also known for his brief union with the "Asleep at the Wheel" gang. He loves to entertain but does not like the life style of a country and western performer. This restaurant allows him to spend more time with his wife and family, and he will entertain his guests only when the mood strikes.

Pictures #1, #2, and #3 show the table arrangements at the Hilltop Cafe. Needless to say, it was quite cozy. Johnny was not only having to take care of the 31 of us, but also his regular Friday night crowd. Also in pic #1 we see Dawn Ouanesavanh, Maitre de Table Restaurateur, owner and operator of August E's. Beside her is Leu, her husband and main chef. We will be be making them a nervous wreck by this time tomorrow night when we attack in force on that side of town; but right now they are enjoying themselves and checking out the competition. In pic #2, we get a good shot of John Wade's sun burned face from his motor cycle ride to Fredericksburg. Pic #4 is Johnny Nicholas performing in the earlier days. Pic #5 is Johnny at the piano performing for us. He was playing the piano, his harmonica, his guitar, and singing all at the same time.

Oh, oh, row 2 pic #2, we see Mike hitting on the tattooed lady. If you go back one picture and look pic #1, same row, we can see the big tattoo on this young lady's back. Mike said that she has other interesting tattoos where the sun doesn't shine. If you look over the tattooed lady's shoulder we see John Travolta. No, wait just a minute, that's, uhh, that Schmerbeck fellow. Sorry, he only looks like John Travolta on the dance floor. We can see that the gang is enjoying the music. They are really having fun dancing. If you enlarge 2nd row, pic #4 you can see a combination of foot wear that made Elaine very nervous -- her open toe shoes vs. Wilmer's big boots.

On the way back home we had the same Mario Andretti that we had when we came. Mike Davis was sitting in the seat behind the driver and when the speedometer, again, crept up pass the 90 marker, Mike told him this: "If we have a terrible crash as a result of your reckless speed and if the accident does not kill you, I am going to kill you myself with my bare hands after the dust settles." Well, needless to say, that slowed Mario down, and everyone put their beads back in their pocket.

After we got back to our rooms, some of us decided to stay outside and sit on the porch in the wooden rocking chairs. Wilmer and Elaine decided to be a little more romantic and they sat in the "love rocker," a rocker built for two. Well, over the course of 10 minutes or so, Wilmer got a little out of hand with his romance, and the whole rocker broke in half and came crumbling to the ground. Wilmer had his arm around Elaine at the time, and his arm and hand was at the bottom of the pile as everything hit the rough wooden floor below. To make a long story short, Wilmer had to be taken to the hospital emergency room at 12:30 a.m. to get his little finger on his left hand put back together. It took four stitches to do it. The cut went all the way to bone. I think Wilmer has been making a little bit too many trips to the hospital emergency room lately. I'll tell you what Wilmer, if any time in the future you find yourself at the same party with Vincent Parziale, you both need to stay as far away from each other as possible. There's entirely too much bad karma floating around you two guys.

Friday night has come and gone. Wilmer has awaken and is still alive and everyone is ready for breakfast. Pic #1 and #2 shows this lively breakfast bunch. If you notice, Wilmer is still wearing his hospital bracelet. The hospital staff told him not to take it off. They are expecting him to return some time today for another emergency before he leaves town.

After breakfast the gang loads up and we all head for Becker's Vineyard for a little late morning refreshment hour prior to having lunch in the vineyard's Lavender House. Pic #3 is Jim and Maggie Fox. This husband and wife team are very good friends with Vanburen Clark. As a matter of fact, Jim Fox is Van's banjo instructor. Van told me that he has learned to play the banjo so well that the next time the Bailliage has a dance formal, our Bailliage can save about 600 bucks and hire him for the dance music and not one of those high-priced bands.

Whoops, don't look at that second picture in the second row. We have Wilmer giving everybody the finger again! Looking through the pictures above, we find Bill giving a speech, we find Dr. Becker giving a speech, and in the last small picture of the second row, we find something very interesting. We have Henri DeLobbe, part of the Becker's staff, and a Frenchman to boot, leading the group in singing the French National Anthem. Well, after all, this is Bastille Day. For all citizens of France, the storming of the Bastille symbolizes, liberty, democracy, and the struggle against all forms of oppression. The French revolution terminated successfully in 1789. This is not that far behind what the Americans did in 1776. I guess the two countries have something in common after all.

After lunch, we all gathered on the steps of the main entrance to the wine tasting area and posed for the picture everyone saw at the beginning of this story. While doing some cropping, I noticed something very interesting. We have a large concentration of ladies all together in one area (a total of 13), every lady except Janace Wade. Take a look. Everyone looks very happy except poor Shirley Schmerbeck. I can see about one half of one half of her sunshades. Now it's very hard to tell if Shirley is looking as cheerful as the rest of the ladies in this picture, but I have a feeling that she isn't, especially after looking at all the front row space hubby Schmerbeck is taking up. Shirley, we're going to give you some special treatment on our next photo op, so just stand by. Probably the next most obscure lady we have here is Diane Matthews. She can hardly be seen, but she does have a big smile on her face. Yea, the only thing we needed to do to this all-girls photo was to have traded places with Pat Murray and Janice Wade, something that we might try on our next group photo. As a matter of fact, I'm going to personally move everyone to where we have a good picture of all smiley faces..

After leaving Becker's Vineyards, it was crash time, shopping time, or whatever. Everyone had until 6 p.m., then it was time for Happy Hour prior to loading up and heading for August E's.

All the above pictures were taken at August E's with the exception of #1. The first picture is our ritual pre-dinner happy hour and just prior to loading ourselves into the kamikaze cabs and heading for August E's.

Pic #2 above is our usual milling around to find our table and seat. The rest of the pictures in row one are the Bailli's induction and awards ceremony. Here we see Paul and Glenda Beyer being inducted into the Chaine. Our Bailli did not have the traditional sword/spit for the swearing in, so he used a table knife. (Bill says that it is perfectly legal. He just would not be able to marry anybody with a table knife). These two were originally slated for induction at our La Cantera dinner but were unable to attend the event. However, Paul and Glenda did attend our Societe Mondiale du Vin BYOB at The Grill in Leon Springs -- so they are off and running, Big Time. We also see Bob Schmerbeck receiving his award, the "Bronze Star of Excellence." The Bronze Star of Excellence is given by the Bailli to one person each year who has demonstrated outstanding service within the Bailliage. For those of you who may not have ventured too deeply into our web site lately, you can go to the Membership Directory and view past recipients of the Chaine and Mondiale Gold and Bronze Star of Excellence award. In the next two pictures we have Bill prompting Bob to stand up to receive his happy birthday cheer from the crowd. A recognition that was almost forgotten. I'm like Bob, I've been trying to forget about my birthday for the past five years; unfortunately, I've got a wife that wont let me forget it or let the rest of the world forget it either!

Row two are general photo shots of the inside of the dining area. Unlike the night before, everyone had plenty of elbow room and breathing space. The atmosphere was clean, fresh, and comfortable. That fellow with the tuxedo is Paul Alexander Just. Paul is a young, energetic, upcoming tenor opera singer. He has recently finished his second year of his masters program from the University of British Columbia, Opera Program. Paul has been studying and will continue to study under some of the most acclaimed and renowned Canadian, Dutch, and American opera singers. He is currently working his way through his Masters as a waiter and singing to dinner audiences such as ours.

In the third row is Dawn Ouanesavanh. She came over to visit with the table. Dawn looks very relaxed and unstressed, completely the opposite of what I though she would at this time of night. Actually, she has played her cards right for this evening's event. There are 44 dinners, 7 courses per dinner, plus the topping off of the wine glasses, and the removal of used dishes. That's about 400 trips back and forth from the kitchen that someone has to make. She has poor hubby Leu in the kitchen taking all the heat while she is circulating being the perfect hostess. Good job Dawn. The other lady in the picture is Kathy Harrison. Kathy is part of a group of ten guests that wanted to attend our function. They are all friends of Dawn and Leu. The ten of them want to start their own Bailliage in Fredericksburg. Bill is currently working with these folks in helping them accomplish this goal. The rest of row three is Bill recognizing the efforts of the wait staff, cooking crew, and Dawn and Leu.

Oh, one last thing about the dinner. We had 44 individuals listed on the program. Forty-three showed up. The one that was missing was a Chaine member and showed up on Sunday night for his dinner. He got his dates mixed up. He was very surprised to find no one there except him. He had dinner anyway. Who was he. You will have to get that information on your own.

With that said, the evening of events came to a close. All of us jumped in our designated speed-mobiles and were back at our lodge in a blink of an eye. Needless to say that no one sat in any of the rocking chairs after returning to our quarters.

The next morning, all that was left to do is go down, eat breakfast, indulge ourselves in intellectual conversation around the table, then pack up and hit the road. Oh by the way, I promised you a shot of Van's Classic 74 Volkswagen. Van has this vehicle registered as a classic automobile. When you do that, the insurance company only allows you to drive it 2500 miles per year, no speedy or reckless driving, keep it stored in a garage-like atmosphere, and keep it out of harms way when it is driven. Van and Cheryl left about a half hour before Vivian and I did. On the way back to Boerne driving IH-10, we spotted them over to the right driving on the access road. We honked and waved as we went by, but they were too preoccupied with something else to see us. I have a feeling that Van took the scenic route back to San Antonio via the access road. Yep, Van loves his classic automobile.

Here's John with his set of wheels getting ready to head back to San Marcos. Oh by the way, the gang all agreed to pitch in and get enough money for John to get a big "Skull and Crossbones" tattoo on his right upper arm.

The End